Rating: 
Summary: Amazing Camera !
Review: After months of searching for an easy to use point and shoot 2.1-mega pixel camera. I finally took the plunge and purchased a 490z. I had the opportunity to test the following camera's (thanks to friends and family) Sony S50, Fuji FP2400, Canon S100 and the Olympus 490z. My two main objectives were, picture quality and the ability to turn it on and shoot without messing with any settings. The Olympus wins hands down out of the four. This camera is almost perfect! Pros: amazing clarity and picture color both indoors and out, excellent flash range indoors, quick cycle and shutter lag times, easy to carry, great battery life with NiMH rechargeables (I use the view finder 90% of the time) Cons: no usb, you have to open the flash Forget about what you've read about the sliding door to cover the lens, its no problem what so ever. The menus are a little cryptic but 10 minutes with the manual and it's "set it and forget it". No mic for the movies. Hello, I bought it for photo's, not movies. I purchased the camera, Olympus 64mb card, Olympus USB Camedia Reader and a rechargeable AA battery kit for a little over $600. I can't say enough about how pleased I am with this camera. Anybody can take this camera out of the box and take excellent pictures with very little effort.
Rating:
Summary: My Second Olympus Digital Camera
Review: I recently upgraded from the Olympus D-340R to the D-490Zoom and I do not regret my decision! The D490 Zoom produces remarkable prints. One thing to consider though is that one must have an excellent printer, or another option is to upload your photographic treasures to and online company such as shutterfly.com or ofoto.com. I want to dispute what one reviewer wrote. He stated that the Camedia program that comes with the camera was weak and that it had a slideshow option that only showed sample photos. He should go back and learn more about Camedia. Once you bring your photos into the Camedia program you choose the select all option and then go to the slideshow function and you will have an instant slideshow! You can also create wallpaper from any of your photos. Just do not choose a high resolution shot or it will be too large for your screen. I recently scanned some old slides of my husband in Korea. Many were faded a great deal. I was able to use the instant fix option in Camedia to bring back rich colors. Another plus to camedia is the ability to transfer any photos to another drive directly from Camedia. I have a Zip drive and I transfer all my photos that I want to keep to the Zip Drive by again choosing the select all function and dragging and dropping to the choosen drive just like using Windows Explorer. There are other excellent editing programs on the market, but Camedia will help with most simple editing needs. I pays to learn its functions.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Digital Camera!
Review: After much research and reading customer reviews here at Amazon, I had narrowed my choice for a digital camera down to the Olympus D-460Z and the Olympus D-490Z. I left the final decision to my husband to choose which one he wanted to buy for my Christmas gift. He chose the 490Z and I couldn't be more pleased with this camera. Never having used a digital camera I found it simple to use...was taking pictures within an hour of reading a bit about it & installing the software. Some of the reviews that I have read had me concerned about the lens cover closing, but I find this to be an excellent feature and have not had any problems with that at all. I haven't bought any accessories at this time, a rebate for a free USB reader was included with the camera & I have mailed that off. I know that will speed the downloading process up a great deal. Overall, I think the picture quality is excellent & the ease of using the camera is amazing. I would certainly recommend this camera to anyone in the market for a digital camera. The only thing I can say negative is the Camedia software is lame, it is not a program that I find helpful in editing the pictures. I have several other programs that I am using instead. I currently am using ULead PhotoImpact...I download the pictures directly from the camera into PhotoImpact & edit them for email or saving to my hard drive. I also have Adobe PhotoShop, but haven't used it with the camera yet. I would recommend that you consider buying another software program for editing your photos, but other than that...this is a terrific camera & I would certainly buy it again. Thanks to all for the great reviews! I found them most helpful in deciding which camera to purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Camera... I love it 100%!
Review: This is the best digital camera in the 2.1 megapixel class that I have seen! The pictures are crystal clear, and the camera itself is jam-packed with features. (The flash assembly doesn't feel flimsy to me at all.) The QuickTime movie mode is great for times when you want to capture a whole room, or a memorable moment that lasts for several seconds. The serial connection is not blazingly fast, but it isn't all that slow either; and it allows connection to older Macs and PCs without USB. There is also an offer for a free USB SmartMedia reader/writer if you have USB and want to take advantage of its speed. I had a problem with the serial connection at first, but Olympus's excellent online tech support service guided me straight to the problem (the HotSync software for my PalmPilot was using the COM port). I would highly recommend this camera for anybody wanting a simple yet powerful camera with lots of flexibility. This is my first digital camera, and I've loved it since the minute I got it.
Rating:
Summary: FABULOUS CAMERA
Review: I PURCHASED THE OLYMPUS D-490 DIGITAL CAMERA ON A WHIM. I WAS GOING TO GREAT BRITAIN FOR THREE WEEKS & DECIDED THAT I NEEDED A DIGITAL CAMERA. HAVING USED OLYMPUS CAMERAS IN THE PAST & THE PRICE BEING RIGHT BASICALLY THAT MADE MY DECISION. IT PROVED TO BE A GOOD ONE. AFTER TOURING ENGLAND, WALES & SCOTLAND FOR THREE WEEKS AND TAKING LOADS OF PHOTOS, I RETURNED HOME, DOWNLOADED THE SMART MEDIA CARD WITH A VIKING MEMORY READER AND DISCOVERED I HAD OVER 200 REALLY GREAT PHOTOS. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS CAMERA FOR EASE OF USE, SMALL ENOUGH TO FIT IN A BACK PACK OR PURSE, GREAT COMPUTER PHOTOS & FUN TO USE. HAPPY PHOTO TAKING JUST ABOUT ANY ONE COULD USE THIS CAMERA.
Rating:
Summary: D-490 Zoom
Review: This is one of those magical products. The camera case, while at first appearing to be some sort of plastic is really a surprisingly good quality metal, perhaps aluminum. Olympus never compromises, you buy this camera with a feeling of confidence that the lens apparatus is of the highest optical quality, an invisible quality perhaps neglected by most other manufacturers, with the possible exception of Canon. That said, your pictures come out true to life. And I was pleasingly surprised by the quality of the indoor photos I received which were in most cases just as good without the flash as with it. The color is always good and with the multitude of software available (I ended up with eight CD's without even having bought a software package, everything, even the photo paper comes with one) you can make the color even more vibrant if you wish! Now on to the cons. The sliding lens cap gets alarmingly close to but in my case always stops just short of hitting the extended lens before it slides in by itself before you can close it all the way, but it is by the smallest of margins! I am supposing that they've tested this, and there is definitely a click stop, but I wouldn't want to accidentally 'slam' it one day. As a final note, there is one item neglected in an otherwise nearly perfect instruction manual. TO ACCESS SHG-TIFF: You must hold the up arrow for two seconds as I found out only from an Amazaon review! But I guarantee you'll hardly ever use this mode anyway. Amazaon.com has better support than the manufacturers! Anyone willing to invest in this fairly pricey camera will surely be most satisfied. When you add the multitude of features that is sure to keep you reading for hours and the surprisingly inexpensive 'look' you will as well be sure to conclude after obtaining one that there is, indeed, a magical quality to this device.
Rating:
Summary: An exemplary camera with a some strange, uh, features
Review: I got my D-490 on December 13 2000 and I've already taken 4 dozen pictures with it (it's Christmas Day, 2000 today). Once you figure out how to access the excellent capabilities it has, the camera's fine optics, good zoom, excellent auto ranging and f/stop-shutter speed, and simple editing procedures will win you over. It also has very nice advanced features (e.g., white balance, manual ISO overides, resolution options, special flash functions, etc), so it's both a great snapshot camera for inexperienced users and it has plenty of features for experience photographers as well. The user interface is strange - downright counter-intuitive at times. For example, opening the lens cover turns the camera on (suppose I just want to wipe the lens off?), and you can't view images you've taken already unless the camera's turned off. Also, the CaMedia software that comes with the camera is a pretty weak brew. It starts with a gratuitous slide show that I find completely pointless and time-consuming to bring up (for no reason, since these aren't your pictures!). Aside from downloading images, it's almost useless in my opinion. The Photo Editor software that comes with your PC is more capable. Also, a USB interface isn't standard - heresy in 2000 computer peripherals. Bizarre interfaces and poor PC software aside, the D-490 is a superb digital camera! I'd buy it again and recommend it to anyone - well, anyone willing to fight through the user interface to learn to use the powerful and useful features of this excellent and otherwise well-engineered tool.
Rating:
Summary: We love it
Review: I selected this camera based on Pixels, Price, and the reviews it got on Amazon. My whole family will be using this camera so I wanted something that would be easy to use. I also wanted good pictures and the 490's 3 X optical zoom and 2.1 Mega pixels deliver. We love the pictures we are taking and it is very easy to manipulate them with the included software. We also bought a larger memory card which will come in handy on vacation, rechargeable batteries and an AC adapter which we use when upoading the pictures to the computer. Uploads can take a while, so we will be buing a Viking flash reader soon. This camera does not solve all the problems of digital cameras but it is a great buy for the price and Amazon was able to deliver it right away.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome features with counter-intuitive user interface
Review: This is a gadget in the most basic sense. For its intended use, it's phenominal; it takes excellent pictures at all resolutions, and it has exemplary electronics and optics for a small camera. It provides strong automation features with good overides for ISO settings, white balance, down-stopping, and previewing pictures taken. The back-plate screen is wonderful. The user interface is cumbersome, however, and support software leaves much to desired. You'll likely use the support software only for downloads. Leave the processing to Photo House; it's just better software, Additionally, the absence of a USB port (unforgivable in 2000) makes downloads slow. My experience with the red-eye redux have been inconclusive; sometimes it helps, sometimes not. It comes with an 8M SmartMedia card, which you will likely upgrade to 32M or more right away. Overall, it's probably worth the hassles, though, because the results are spectacular. I'd still buy it, problems notwithstanding. My recommendations: buy the camera, upgrade the SmartMedia card, and get used to slow downloads. Believe it or not, it's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: The BEST camera I saw
Review: This camera is what I call a "must have thing". The image quality is simply the best I ever seen on digital picturing. The price, worth it. It's not a expensive machine but has too many qualities. I read all the reviews at this webpage and found all them useful for me. And here are my pro and cons: Pro: 1- image quality 2- easy to use 3- doesn't look as a expensive camera, so thiefs will not think it is a digital one, but a ordinary camera 4- software included 5- it records on the picture file data as apperture size, flash on or off, ISO and date on each picture (data read only by CAMMEDIA softwere) 6- very good flash action (with the SLOW fearture you can take pictures that the object is far from you but get bright pics) 7- optical viewfinder (economizes batteries... with my old CASIO QV-300 I had always to change batteries) CONS: 1- data transfer... the serial port is too slow, I recommend a USB SMARTMEDIA READER 2- SmartMedia(TM) card is too small (only 8MB), recommend you buying too a extra card 3- some pictures took with the SLOW flash function get blured (but it was expected), so, needs a good hand or a tripod 4- it's too easy to delete ALL PICTURES! (my brother deleted all pictures from my prom last month.... no comments!) 5- the menu uses only symbols, so, it's easy to someone that doesn't deals with the camera constantly do something wrong, as my brother did It is a good thing to buy, trust me, until today (17/Dec/2000) I didn't find another camera that I would buy instead of this. I bought it with a extra smartmedia(tm) card, a SanDisk(tm) 32MB. I'm now looking for a USB SmartMedia reader, a AC Adapter and batteries recharger.
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